Coach Faris' Daughter

There would be interest from several colleges. Intent on Kelly making her own choice, Bob said at one point that she seemed stalled with indecision.

"She said, 'I haven't heard from UConn again,'" Bob said. So he called and talked to Chris Dailey.

"Chris had been led to believe by another coach that Kelly had made a decision to stay in state," Bob said. "She wanted to know if I was calling to say that was so."

On the contrary, Bob said, and the recruiting game was on. Kelly would sit with Auriemma in his office. They went to dinner at Nathan Hale Inn. Bob listened. Eventually a half-dozen candidates became Notre Dame and UConn.

"Kelly already had gone to bed one night," said Bob, who played football at the University of Indianapolis. "She came downstairs and said I've made my up mind. I didn't know what she was going to say next."

She said UConn.

"There were a lot of schools she could have gone to and contributed," Bob said. "I don't know that any of them would have been a better fit for her in her development as a player and person. The mind-set at UConn, the way they approach things, it's exactly us. It fits us like a glove."

Not that all the fingers didn't need to grow. Faris shot 38.2 percent, including 27 percent on threes, in her freshman year.

"As a real young player, she was a good three-point shooter," Bob said. "As she got into middle school and high school, she was taller [5-11] than a lot of the kids and spent a lot of time in the paint. I thought she could get back to it, but it was going to take some time. She needed to shoot shots."

And so she did, 500 a day at times.

"It's not totally natural, but she has come a long way," Bob said.

As a senior, she's shooting 53.6 percent, including 41.5 percent on threes. Faris leads the team with 66 steals and 104 assists. She's averaging 5.2 rebounds as a guard. Not that Bob or Kelly care, she's averaging 10.5 points.

"Any time I see a 5-10, 5-11 kid playing center on their team, and they win a state championship, I figure they are going to be pretty good," Auriemma said. "Playing out of position in high school, you knew once they got to college they'd be able to do more than dribble and shoot threes."

Midwestern ice storm permitting, Bob, who owns a direct mail and advertising firm, his wife, Connie, all the siblings and Kelly's godparents are expected at Gampel Pavilion for senior day.

"This represents a culmination of the commitment," Bob Faris said. "All Kelly ever wanted to do since she was little was to keep getting better. This is the end of a chapter and the start of another book hopefully [to play in the WNBA]."

And then Bob Faris stopped. "She's not happy with some of the losses obviously," he said.

The school she turned down, Notre Dame, has beaten UConn five of the past six times. It wasn't a shock after the January loss to the Irish that she tried to personally take responsibility. She had scored 13 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished seven assists but insisted that her defense against Kayla McBride had cost her team.

"For Kelly, it comes down to could this or that possession have gone differently," Bob Faris said. "Against Notre Dame, it came down to one. Against Baylor, it was two or three. When it comes down to so few, you can find fault with yourself. I know that's a bad feeling for her. She never wants to be responsible for helping the team lose."

Over the past eight years, Kelly Faris' teams are 240-17, including 132-9 at UConn. By any scorebook — or no scorebook — she will be defined by each possession that led to those incredible numbers.